Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
cope
verb
(of a person) deal effectively with something difficult.
“his ability to cope with stress”
Magic the Gathering Tournaments
When 1000 people enter a Grand Prix, an individual has less than a 1% chance to top8.
If a player manages to top8 and loses the quarter they are likely to feel bad and might think
“I actually did it, I top8d the 1000 person event, and then I lost right away and I’m back at square one, square one being where I am less than 1% to top8 this 1000 player event”.
Magic the Gathering is a game where you are statistically very unlikely to win in, this idea must internalized by every tournament player. Failure to do so may lead to losing touch with reality, madness, mania, rage and other side effects.
Losing
I have noticed, in myself and others, negative emotions arising after a loss. Play a match take an L, and you leave feeling all the more sour..
But think about it, why are you upset? What exactly transpired in the last hour that negatively effected you?
In my view, generally, your expectations were breached, one went into the match expecting to win and now have to deal with the aftermath of reality differing your expectations.
These expectations, in my view must absolutely be re-adjusted. MTG is more similar to Poker than Chess, the goal of the game is not to win every match, the goal is to make good decisions and then see how the cards lay.
There really is no reason to be upset.
The point of this piece is not to simply say “do not feel bad and be illogical, it is better to feel good and be logical”, but rather a reflection on our emotional states, and how to deal with them.
So next time you are playing an event and tilt, ask yourself, is there any reason to be upset and then try to Cleanse your mind of peaks records, of ifs, buts and coulds.
Expunge.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
This piece is a follow up to my article on emotional awareness and cognitive biases, where I gave examples on how negative emotions can hinder our judgment.